What happened between the Governor of Imo State, Owelle Rochas Okorocha, and Charly Boy, the Area Father during the burial ceremony of his father, Justice Chukwudifu Oputa was nothing but failure of protocol and due process.
At the burial of the eminent Jurist at Oguta last week, the Governor of Imo state had stood up in the church to give his speech when Charles Oputa got up and openly refused Okorocha making any statement at the well-attended funeral which attracted who-is-who in Nigeria.
The occasion would have been a vantage ceremony for the Governor of Imo state to throw his usual diatribe on perceived enemies and sale his programmes to the elite crowd.
However, Charly Boy’s volte face stopped Okorocha on his tracks.
But let me state here emphatically that what Charly Boy did was not an acceptable standard any where in the world on how a guest should be treated by his host.
Secondly, no matter the face or name of who occupies Imo Government House as Governor of Imo state, she or he must be given that statutory respect, because he/she is the aggregate symbol of Imo populace whom he/she represents.
Therefore, what ever insult or disgrace that was meted out to Okorocha at that occasion was an insult poured on Imo people. Charly Boy should have restrained himself for the fact that Okorocha is the Governor of Imo state, and his guest.
Certainly, there could have been some drastic issues which led Oputa to humiliate his guest in that manner. But whatever it is, is left for Charly Boy and Okorocha to sought out.
However, what is good for the goose, is also good for the gander. The Oguta assault so rankled Okorocha that he vowed to hence forth deal with his perceived political enemies, whom he swore prodded Oputa to give him that “June shocker” in the presence of such high class crowd.
But what Oputa gave Okorocha is just a finger tip of what Okorocha has been unleashing on some hapless section of Imo populace since 2011 he assumed office.
Indeed, the Governor had said it severally and in many fora that he does not believe in protocol and due process, as they waste time.
Therefore, Charles Oputa threw away protocol and due process that day when he confronted Okorocha against the array of gun totting security personnel at the event. In the process, “Over-take take Over-take”. Oputa was simply a student of Okorocha’s school of impunity.
If Okorocha felt such humiliated, he should ponder for just a second and place himself in the position of many Imo people who have suffered vengeance, impunity, vendetta, humiliation, assault, insult and in some cases harm since 2011, and heavens remained still, because they were the poor of the society, and nobody took note of these marginalization and discrimination going on against them in Imo state.
Imagine a situation where half of Imo population adopt the Okorocha and Oputa method, where a government can bulldoze a three storey building without paying the owners a kobo compensation?
How do you see the Charly Boy act at Oguta, in a court judgment instructing a Government to pay a citizen compensation for wrongful treatment, yet rather than pay, ask heavens to fall.
Have you imagined the amount of microphones snatched away from the mouths of over (11,000) eleven thousand Imo Graduates, who after going through intensive interview, gained employment and received salaries, only to be told to go home, sacked?
They poor chaps even gathered some money for Lawyers to persecute their case, which Imo state has been pursuing with all vigour as if those involved are not Imo youths.
Does your mind flash back to the Oputa burial ceremony when you realize that workers of Concord Hotel, some of them who served nine years, were told one morning to go home forever without a single notice.
What happens to the school fees of the children of these sacked workers? How do they feed their families before they can gain another employment, if any ever?
Can you flash your mind back with Charly Boy looking into Okorocha’s eyes with former appointees of Government of Imo state, citizens of the state being waylaid on the streets and Government official cars assigned to them confiscated from them without documentation, as if they stole the vehicles? These fellows disgraced on the streets of Owerri, just because another citizen of Imo state was sworn-in as Governor of the state? Is that not the height of breaching protocol?
When Charly Boy went to “war’ to stop the governor from delivering his speech, does it have any resemblance to when a state Governor orders the State Accountant General to stop the payment of a two month salary arrears already scheduled, to ex-Government appointees in the state, just for the reason that they served another Governor of Imo extraction?
Could Charly Boy have been propelled spiritually by the souls of late Dr Aguwa (Former Commissioner for Petroleum) late Pini Jason (Former Special Adviser) and Late Bona (Former Chairman Ideato North LGA) who all died, buried, without receiving their severance allowances after serving Imo state in their various capacities?
Has anybody wondered if the protocol broken by Charly Oputa worths that being faced by sacked Permanent Secretaries from the Imo Civil Service, who up till now can not fathom the reason they were sacked at the time they were to enjoy their sweats having laboured for years to attain the highest position in their chosen careers?
Oputa breached protocol, but this Government in Imo state has been making a mess of protocol in the lives of others. It sees power as something that should be used to deal with perceived enemies. But one ironical thing is that power is very transient. Democracy is not monarchy. Soldier go, soldier come, barrack remains.
Whoever holds power in Imo should realize that he is holding it in trust of the masses and that we all are from Imo, and every body is contributing his/her own little quota from his obscure position. From taxi driver to the “Big man”. No man is an Island. The aggregation of what each person does is what is economy of any given society. No president sews his cloths or drives his official car. No Governor polishes his shoes or barbs himself. No King cooks his meals or wash his cloths.
Before 2011 in Imo state, no matter who was the Governor, every citizen has the right to free entrance to Government House, Owerri.
Then, even if you can not see the Governor, you can even go into the “Multi Purpose Hall” and sit down and watch the Government House activities. When you get home to Ngor Okpala, you boast that you went to Government House to see Udenwa or Ohakim.
Today, the masses have been barricaded away from even catching a glimpse of the Douglas House gate.
Before, after elections, whoever “returns” is received, but today if they don’t like your face and you are seen, you will receive the beating of your life, like me. Is Government not about love and progress of all, as sworn by the Chief Executive?
In Government, nobody is given persona non granta, except you committed a crime against the state. That is why protocol is enshrined in Governance to accommodate all.
In Imo Government of today, some citizens are marked out from Government functions, against the grain of protocol. For instance, a Senator in this state told me he has not received any invitation from the Okorocha administration since he fell out with the Governor.
Protocol does not care about your personal relationship with the President or Governor. If there is a function that warrants inviting all past Governors, send out their letters of invitation. If they do not come, it is not your business. Keep sending to them as guaranteed by protocol. Let it be on record that those letters went out.
It is not in the place of whoever is the Governor to decide who should be invited to state functions. It is absolutely the function of the protocol department.
When Buhari was invited for one thousand year celebration of Nigeria, did he not come? Jonathan would not have invited him because he is in opposition party!
How many state functions has the present Governor of Imo state invited his predecessors, let it be that they did not come? Governance in Imo has been reduced to a personal and petty business. That is the reason Charles Oputa could get up in the presence of Nigerians and insult Imo Governor.
Similar incidents had happened before with Governor Okorocha, only that in the Oguta incident he was at the receiving end, unlike the Dr Peter Obi (Ex-Governor of Anambra) case, where his protocol officers were the antagonists.
What of Dr Leo Stan Eke daughter’s wedding at Ubomiri where the Governor was reported to have taken Peter Obi’s seat.
Charity should begin at home. When a Governor openly declares that he does not give a danm about protocol he is inviting impunity, which was what Charly Boy meted out to him at Oguta.
Remember the other incident at Chinua Achabe’s burial? Why must it be Imo and in Imo all the times?
